Melvin Davis - Detroit Soul Ambassador cd (Vampi-Soul)

$21.99

Obscure Detroit soul figure with records on Fortune, Wheel City, and Groovesville (among others) finally starts to get his due... liner notes by Mike Hurtt (Royal Pendletons, Haunted Hearts) tells the story along with interviews with Mr Davis.

Spanish import.

Label says:First ever compilation of the complete early to mid-60s recordings by
this essential figure of Detroit's music history. Contains the northern
soul floor-fillers 'Find A Quiet Place (And Be Lonely)' and 'I Must Love
You' plus four previously unreleased tracks from the Groovesville
vaults.Detroit soul is represented in all its stylistic nuances: the
garage R&B of 'I Don't Want You',the proto-northern sound of 'I
Won't Be Your Fool', the bohemian jazz inflections of 'It's No News',
the frantic rock'n'roll of 'Playboy' and 'This Ain't The Way', the
persistent, minor keyed mood of 'Wedding Bells' and the majesty of 'Find
A Quiet Place' and 'I Must Love You'.Comprehensive liner notes by
writer, historian and musician Michael Hurtt. One of the most talented,
dynamic and prolific artists in the history of Motor City music, Melvin
Davis isn't so much a musician as he is a musical force: songwriter,
drummer, performer, producer, arranger, label owner… His bands have
included everyone from a pre-Temptations David Ruffin to a post-MC5
Wayne Kramer. His drumming helped define the Miracles' Motown smash
'Tears of a clown', drove the Lyman Woodard Trio's double-sided funk
masterpiece 'River Rouge' b/w 'It's Your Thing' and became the stuff of
legend on Dennis Coffey's seminal LP "Hair And Thangs". He's the
evocative lead vocalist behind the 8th Day's million seller 'You've Got
To Crawl (Before You Walk)' and the songwriter who penned JJ Barnes'
desperate ode 'Chains of Love'. The genre that has come to be called
northern soul could hardly claim a more qualified ambassador, for Davis
penned many of its most crucial cornerstones: Johnnie Mae Matthews'
'Lonely You'll Be', Darrell Banks' 'I'm The One Who Loves You', Lonette
McKee's 'Stop! Don't Worry About It', Edward Hamilton's 'I'm Gonna Love
You', Ann Perry's 'That's the Way He Is', Steve Mancha's 'I Won't Love
You and Leave You'. While Davis's very presence helped to define a
myriad of local labels whose output was every bit as essential to the
soul of Detroit's golden era as was Motown's, his profile as an artist
has often been boiled down to the northern soul floor-fillers 'Find A
Quiet Place (And Be Lonely)' and 'I Must Love You'. As brilliant as they
are, it should come as no surprise that there is another side to
Davis's early Detroit discography, one that is the very essence of the
city's rockin' soul aesthetic. A true portrait of Melvin Davis would be
incomplete without the superb sides he cut for tiny labels such as Jack
Pot and KE KE, fiercely independent imprints like Fortune and Wheel
City, and slightly larger concerns such as Groovesville. For the first
time ever, every one of them are here, along with several unreleased
cuts from the Groovesville vaults.